Thursday, September 30, 2010

Book Review: "For Time and Eternity" by Allison Pittman

All Camilla Deardon knows of the Mormons camping nearby is the songs she hears floating on the breeze. Then she meets one of them—a young man named Nathan Fox. Never did she imagine he would be so handsome, so charming, especially after Mama and Papa’s warnings to stay away. Though she knows she should obey her parents, Camilla can’t refuse her heart. But even Nathan’s promises cannot prepare her for what she will face in Utah.

Let me start out by saying, this book was very difficult for me to read. This is not saying that the book is not written well. It is written beautifully and extremely well. I was caught up in the story and I couldn't stop reading. But it focuses on one of the subjects that I have difficulty in reading - polygamy. (In case you were wondering, I also feel uncomfortable reading about rape and child molestation.) And because of this, it took me a while to finish the book because I had to keep putting it down because I would feel uncomfortable. I'm not saying this will happen to everyone nor am I saying that it should in anyway affect someone's experience with reading this book. I'm just merely stating how I felt while reading.

Throughout the book, I just kept thinking about how horrible it would be to be married to someone who didn't think monogamy in marriage was important. I don't know which would be worse, to have your husband constantly cheat on you but do it separately away from you or to have your husband marry another woman and force the two of you to live together. Seriously, it just boggles my mind as to which would be the worse situation. I am so thankful that my husband does not want a second wife (I asked him JIC). The thing that got me most about the story, is that it seems as this is all a power trip on the man. He reaps all the benefits here in this lifetime and in the next and the women get nothing. It's also rather disgusting how they keep wanting younger and younger wives so they can keep having more children.

If somehow I found myself in Camilla's shoes, I honestly have no idea what I would have done. Probably either the situation she chose or kill myself. That seems to be the only options that were available to women during that time period. It's extremely sad that they had no say at all in this and were expected to do what was asked of them. Since Pittman handles such a delicate subject about polygamy and the Mormon church of the 1800s, the question and answer section included at the end of the story is very helpful. She mentions that by writing this series she "didn't want to take on the entire Mormon faith." This is relevant because Pittman is not writing about modern day Mormons but those from the 1800s. This could probably be akin to someone writing about Christians during the Crusades as opposed to Christians during present day. It's not the same.

The only thing that kills me is that the ending of the story is a cliffhanger and I have to wait until SUMMER 2011 before I can read the next book! I'm having another fork in the road moment there because while I REALLY want to read more in this story, I don't want to wish all those months away before I can! Well I will just have to wait patiently because I know that it will be another fascinating read from Pittman.